


Real Life Version

by Hover



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Artificial Intelligence, Donna's a BAMF, M/M, Mike makes Harvey insane, Mike's a robot, Sci Fi references, but he loves him anyways, resolved angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-31
Updated: 2012-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-25 03:17:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hover/pseuds/Hover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having an associate who is actually an android certainly complicates things, especially if you fall in love with him...er, it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for Suitsmeme Prompt: Mike's genius isn't due to his eidetic memory - it's because his brain is literally a computer. He's an artificial intelligence android purchased by the law firm specifically for research related purposes. (That is, they're both researching his abilities and using him to research material for cases to make their jobs easier.)
> 
> While working with the fussy little computer, Harvey becomes attached to him. This brings up the question: do computers understand love? And, if so, are they capable of reciprocating it?
> 
> No recognizable characters belong to me. Also, the title is taken from a song of the same name by Voxtrot.

Harvey likes Jessica’s office quite a lot. It’s stylish, it’s sexy. It suits her very well.

He does not, however, like being called in there the second he arrives in the morning. Rarely has he had a good day that started with a ‘conversation’ from Jessica. Unfortunately, the second he steps into that sleek office of hers, he knows something big is going down today, something that he won’t like. He knows because Jessica actually smiles at him- a small, apologetic twist of the lips. He groans internally.

He takes a seat and eyes her with unhidden mistrustfulness. She laughs. “Relax, Harvey. You look like I just killed your favorite kitten. I’m just informing you of your new employee, your associate. This way you won’t have to interview people. Besides, he’s very good; I’m sure you two will get along just fine.”

Harvey frowns. This was…unexpected, and unwanted. “I haven’t been looking for a new employee. And why would you call me in here for that?”

Jessica pauses, as though searching for words. Harvey raises an eyebrow now. He hasn’t seen Jessica so hesitant in a long, long time. “This particular employee is…a special case. He was just sent over today from Starkner Industries, as a test run.” Harvey gets a sinking feeling where this is going. Starkner Industries is the premier company behind the recent advances in artificial intelligence. Because of them, robotic house maids and babysitters have become commonplace. Harvey shakes himself, turns his attention back to Jessica, who has been talking this entire time. “…so he’ll have a complete re-haul about a month in, if we like how things work out. Until then he’s all yours. He’s in your office.”

She turns back to work, and Harvey recognizes the gesture for what it was: a dismissal. Harvey stays for a moment, letting everything sink in. A robot? He had to work with a robot? He Jessica shoos him.

He knows Donna’s excited about this-he can see it in the way she’s twirling her pen. “It’s a robot!” She exclaimed the moment she sees him.

“I don’t like this, Donna. What if it decides to go all HAL on me?”

Donna turned to stare at him. “Okay. First, ‘it’ is a ‘he,’ and he happens to be very sweet. Second, you did not just quote 2001: A Space Odyssey at me. Seriously, do I even know you?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Harvey muttered, but a smile curls his lips. At least some things will never change.

“I hope he doesn’t frighten off the clientele, though. He is rather…uh, large..” Donna points one perfectly manicured finger towards Harvey’s office. Harvey follows her gaze, and feels his chest constrict. The form there is metallic and masculine, more robotic than human. There is a grace somewhere underneath the twists of metal and the gathers of wires, but it lurks too deeply below the surface. Harvey wonders if a good suit will help the situation, but fears that this problem is beyond even Rene.

“Klaatu barada nikto,” he mutters sarcastically to himself as he heads through the doors.

“Seriously, The Day The Earth Stood Still? Who are you, and what have you done with Harv-” Donna’s voice is cut off as the door swings shut, and Harvey allows himself a minute smile before realizing that he is now very much alone with a robot of unknown ability and functionality. It’s a test robot, for goodness’ sake- Harvey had no way of knowing for sure that the thing wasn’t about to snap and break his neck because of some faulty wiring. It certainly would be capable of it, Harvey thought. Its hands were nothing but approximations of human flesh and bones; they were cold steel and hissing hydraulics. Harvey felt a chill at the thought.

“So. You’re my new associate, right?” Harvey asked with a smile. He could bluff his way through this. He had charmed clients so cold and distant Harvey honestly pondered asking them if they were Vulcans.

Harvey felt all his confidence fade away as the thing turned to him. Soft electronic whines filled the air as the thing turned its head to peer at him through narrow red eyes. Terror flooded Harvey- for a split second, he was sure that someone from the future had sent a Terminator after him. But the metal beast merely bent its head slightly in agreement, and Harvey let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

“So. Uhm. What’s your name?”

“A-7713,” it said. Its voice was a tinny, scratchy noise; the attempt at a human sound forced over inadequate machinery. Harvey winced. He was unsure how they had ended up with such an unsophisticated model, but this was bad.

“What, you don’t get a real name?”

“No, sir. They were not expecting to ship me out so soon. They didn’t have a body that would be compatible with my circuits. I will be receiving a more human appearance, as well as personality chips, when I go in for maintenance.”

“Oh, joy.” Harvey really wasn’t sure how this could get any worse. He glanced up to see A-7713 staring at him beadily. It was by far the creepiest thing Harvey had ever seen, including Louis in a thong. Neither was a sight he wanted to revisit, ever. “Well. A-7713. What are you supposed to be doing here, exactly?” Harvey asked, in the vague hope that he could get the thing out of his office, or at least give it something to do that wasn’t staring at him.

“I am programmed to do whatever you, or any Pearson-Hardman employee, tells me to.”

Harvey raised an eyebrow. That sounded promising, at least. Very promising. “There’s a coffee shop downstairs. Order my usual, and bring it back to me. Quickly.”

Without looking up from his paperwork, Harvey realized he would have to be more careful about his orders. Sounds of metallic thuds, Donna’s gasps, screaming people and scattered paper filtered back through his open door. Apparently, A-7713 was too literal in its interpretation of the word ‘quickly.’ Harvey sighed and got up to see if his wayward robot had broken anything in its mad dash for the elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

A-7713 was already there every morning when Harvey arrived. He was still there when Harvey left, late in the night.

Having an employee that needed neither food nor rest was a powerful tool, Harvey realized. He dreaded the day that A-7713 clones hit the mainstream market. They would be wildly popular.

Until then, Harvey kept the secret awesomeness of the robot to himself, although he did share it with Louis if {and only if} all of his work was completely finished.

A-7713’s electronic brain was so suited to lawyer work, it seemed odd to Harvey that no one had come up with this idea sooner. It boiled extensive, rambling backgrounds into a few paragraphs. It edited and proofed like a pro. It found loopholes as easily as it found potentially useful witnesses, which it could do in its sleep. If it did sleep. Which it didn’t.

Of course, they did have…difficulties. First, there was the hallway fiasco, which taught them many things: firstly, A-7713 did have the power to hurt people {or sprain Kyle’s wrist}; secondly, peeling open the doors and leaping down the elevator shaft, while amusing, is not alright; and thirdly, not always are humans exactly literal in their word choices. In many ways A-7713 resembled a child, or an uncarved block that Harvey needed a chisel to get at. They had a conversation about when it was not okay to barge in on somebody {namely: in the bathroom, during client meetings.} They had a talk about not staring at people. They had an entire discussion, which Donna called “their safe sex talk,” about not downloading just anything off of the internet into his internal circuitry. As far as Harvey could tell, one of the associates ordered him to download an…unseemly video so that they could play the audio for it any time Harvey went into Jessica’s office. The resulting virus made A-7713 shut down at inopportune times, and changed his primary language to Japanese. Harvey had never seen the nerds down in technological support ever actually pull their hair out trying to fix anything before, but new things happen every day.

A-7713 took to following Harvey around, loping after him like a large, shiny silver puppy. Harvey found that he didn’t mind. The robot was…thoughtful, in its own way. It picked up on Harvey’s feelings and emulated them somewhat. In doing so, it seemed to pick up an instinctual and great dislike of Louis, a fearful respect of Jessica, and a fond love-hate relationship with Donna. Harvey would have to fix that last one- it was all well and good for him to act that way, but no bumbling pile of chrome was going to take his place in Donna’s heart.

Every morning, still-hot coffee would find its way onto Harvey’s desk. A week or so after this started Harvey noticed that the same went for Donna, who was clearly loving it. A-7713 dropped in every hour or so, asking if anything else needed doing, if any new errands had come up. It was forbidden to leave the Pearson-Hardman building, but was incredibly useful for anything that didn’t include going outside. This meant that A-7713 pretty much took care of everything for Harvey that didn’t include clients or appearing in court. Harvey had never been so well rested in his entire life, and he also had never been quite as effortlessly successful. He was loving every minute of it.

He even grew used to A-7713’s unusual, less-than-human ways. The unnatural stillness with which it sat, the way you could literally hear the gears turning in its head, the small hisses and hums that came with it being in the vicinity. At first the odd noises had driven Harvey halfway insane. Now, he was hesitant to say that he liked it {because he didn’t care about anything like that}, but he had…grown accustomed to it. He let it work in his office some nights, instead of it’s cubicle, which was the appropriate size for a normal human being {and therefore at least two sizes too small for poor A-7713.} Harvey knew it didn’t feel comfort, but it looked more comfortable on the couch, so that was alright with him.

And A-7713’s odd speech, though still grating and jarring, no longer annoyed him. It wasn’t pleasant by any means, but Harvey could put up with it easily, especially if it was telling him about the loophole it had just found that could very well win him his newest case. It was an incredible find. Harvey was so excited he almost hugged the robot, but thought better when he saw the thing’s massive human-crunching arms and the way Donna was secretly peering in from the hall. She would tease him for that until the end of eternity, and he knew it. He settled for a soft “Good, good robot,” instead.

Harvey liked picking A-7713’s brain. It was a steel trap- literally- capable of storing and retrieving endless amounts of data at the drop of a hat. But it went further than just storing data, A-7713 could use that information. It could draw parallels, could make connections, could hypothesize and guess and speculate. It was intelligent. Harvey was impressed.

So, when A-7713 dropped by one night as Harvey was packing up to go home, Harvey was far from annoyed. “What do you want, A?” He asked, using the friendly nickname Donna had come up with shortly after the robot had arrived at Pearson-Hardman. His voice was far from unkind. He was, therefore, naturally confused when the robot stopped up short and tilted its head in a fashion that Harvey knew meant it was in deep thought. There were minutes of companionable silence as A-7713 whirred thoughtfully to itself and Harvey shuffled papers and tidied and packed.

Harvey was so engrossed in his task and so used to the silence that had fallen over them that he didn’t hear A-7713 when it finally spoke. He glanced up. A-7713 glistened softly in the light, but that was nothing new- his highly reflective surface, though slightly dented and scratched by now, was designed to rebound any light in a brilliant fashion. But the soft glow from Harvey’s lamp, coupled with the cold, modern lights flooding in from Harvey’s windows made A-7713 look somehow smaller, somehow more sad.

“I’m sorry, what?” Harvey said. He was surprised at how gentle his voice was, as though he was unconsciously afraid of breaking the fluid quiet of the moment, and that doing so would cause it to shatter and stick under his skin like so many shards of glass.

“Human. I want to be human,” A-7713 said. At the confused look Harvey sent it, it continued. “Your species, you move with grace, you have dignity and beauty and confidence. You are so imperfect, but impossibly whole. I want to be like you. I want to feel, I want to touch and be touched, I want to not instill fear just by existing. I don’t want to look like this anymore. I want to live.”

Harvey let out a long breath. His briefcase, upon falling from his suddenly numb fingers, slammed shut with a resounding thud. It broke the oppressive silence that hung in the air, that kept Harvey glued to his spot.

The sound roused the robot, which looked up at Harvey. There was a long moment where Harvey found it hard to look into those inhuman eyes, but found it impossible to look away.

“Good-night, sir,” A-7713 said eventually in a voice so quiet it was barely there. “Rest well.”

“G’night, A,” Harvey said. The briefcase was uncomfortably heavy in his hand.

 

Next morning, no fresh coffee awaited him on his desk. No robot whirred on his couch.

A-7713 was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Pearson-Hardman was a different place without A- 7713. Harvey couldn’t quite explain it. Something important was missing. And it wasn’t the brief Harvey had ordered Kyle to finish proofing by eight o’clock that morning, although that was mysteriously gone, too. It was something bigger, something far more vital, and Harvey had no words to even begin to describe it.

There was a quiet that didn’t sit well. An anticipation hung in the air, as though every moment awaited the gentle giant that had traveled the halls. It never came.

Harvey grew used to doing most of his own work again. It wasn’t enjoyable, but he had no other choice. None of the other associates were nearly as good as A-7713 had been, and their efforts only made him sad. He bought his own coffee and complained about the associates with Donna. He still closed every case that came before him, but the hours were longer than ever. Things went back to the pre-robotic normality Harvey had so enjoyed before, and now it didn’t sit well with him at all. He was exhausted and cross. Donna was about a week away from snapping and bludgeoning him with her stapler, too. He felt it in his bones.

Staring straight ahead and acknowledging no one, he stalked towards his office. Everyone knew this sign. It meant ‘leave me alone, or else.’ It meant he might have a day to himself for once, without annoying associates getting under his skin. It meant Donna screening his calls especially well. It meant no one would bother or try talking to hi-

“Harvey!” Donna calls.

Crap.

“What?”

“Don’t you want to meet your new associate?” Harvey knows that voice. It’s supposed to sound foreboding and dark, but it barely hides the smile lurking in her eyes.

Then, her words hit him and he sighs slightly. New associate? They were replacing A, all too soon. Harvey wondered why. His own recommendation of the robot had been nothing short of extremely complimentary, and he knew for a fact that Louis was already pestering Jessica about getting a robot of his own. It had gone over marvelously, but now it was gone.

“Sir,” a gentle voice prodded him from his thoughts. Harvey turned to stare down his new plaything. Tall, wiry form clad in an atrocious suit and –Harvey cringed- a _skinny tie_. Mussed hair. Sharp blue eyes. Young. Scuffed shoes. Another hot mess straight out of school that would expect Harvey to be a mentor and guardian.

He felt a headache beginning in his temples. Something like this was hard, especially when it came straight after the best damn associate Harvey had ever come across. Still, the man deserved recognition of some sort, he supposed. Harvey held out a hand. “Hello, nice to meet you. I’m Harvey Specter.”

The boy gave him an odd look, before understanding seemed to dawn on him. He rocked back on his heels with a mischievous smile. “Oh, I see how it is. When I look like this, I get handshakes and proper greetings. When I look like Robin Williams from the beginning of The Bicentennial Man, I get awkward conversations and tons of work. That’s robotism, sir.”

Donna was smiling. Harvey could feel it. The kid was smiling, too- his teeth were white and sharp. He reached out and took Harvey’s hand, shaking gently. He was warm. “Mike Ross, at your service.”

Harvey had to fight down the urge to smile.

Then, he paused. “Wait. You cost us over a million dollars, and they sent you to us in that… _atrocity?_ ”

Mike raised an eyebrow. “What, this? It’s not so bad. Besides, it’s not like you guys pay me or anything. And I believe it is one of the ‘personal oddities’ they programmed into me, in order to make me more realistic and lifelike. It’s not the only upgrade they gave me. Wanna hear more?”

Harvey opened the door to his office extravagantly. “Right after you.”

Mike nodded.

**

“…and I can use contractions, so I automatically beat out Data…”

Harvey watched the android talk. He certainly was a ‘he’ now, in more ways than appearing masculine.

“They say I have emotions like you guys. I’m not sure, exactly, but according to the Miriam-Webster definition of ‘feel’, I guess I think I feel some stuff…”

It was in the way he spoke, in the way he used his hands to emphasize words. It was in the way his eyes flicked to and fro. There was a liveliness in this Mike, one that breathed with everything he did and everything he said.

“..lifelike reactions to surprising events. Oh! And I don’t have to automatically follow a human’s orders. I mean, if it’s serious I will, of course, but if it’s something small I can be a little obstinate. I can argue, too. I love that…”

He appeared to be a perfect specimen of a young male. Sinewy grace and nervous tics and all, he seemed so _human_ it was almost scary.

“I can eat, and breathe, and pretend to sleep. I’m also programmed with thousands of recipes..”

Yet there was something that made Harvey far more nervous than Mike’s lifelike appearance. It was the strange warm feeling twisting his stomach and making him feel giddy and lightheaded. He hadn’t felt this way about anyone in a long time.

“…it’s really easy, too. All they have to do is get the technology small enough and they can pop the wings right in. How cool would it be to fly?”

There was a problem. Mike wasn’t technically a someone. He was a some _thing._

“And I have a personality. I’m told it’s a state-of-the-art thing for us ‘droids, but I like it. It’s fun...hey, sir?”

“Yes, Mike?”

“Are you even listening?”

He was perceptive, too. Harvey liked that. “Of course I am. I was just wondering if you were still good at doing paperwork.”

Mike looked taken aback. “Of course, sir. I’m better at it now.”

Harvey smiled. “Prove it.”

**

And prove it he did.

Mike was still there when Harvey left that night, but it wasn’t because he was swamped with work. In fact, Harvey wondered how the android was going to keep himself busy, since he had singlehandedly finished all of Harvey’s back work before five o’clock that day. As far as Harvey knew, the kid had waited out on Louis until the older man was practically begging before agreeing to do the same for the junior partner. Harvey was beyond impressed, he was almost ecstatic.

He almost wanted to take Mike home with him that night, just so that he wouldn’t be puttering about here all night, all by himself. It was a near thing, but eventually he stepped into the elevator and let the ding of the doors closing cover Mike’s yelled “Good-night, sir!”

He didn’t think much about the interns he passed down in the lobby, even though they smelled oddly of beer and were giggling like teenage girls. They probably were just going to finish up some work. Besides, there was no way they would dare touch Mike. Right?

Harvey snorted. He was already getting paranoid. Everything was fine.

Holding his coat closed against the promising chill that had begun pervading the autumn New York air, he stepped out onto the shadowy silence of the sidewalk. A drop of moisture fell onto his nose, and he looked up to the sky. It was dark and seething with the threat of rain.


	4. Chapter 4

Mike looked worse for wear the next morning, but his smile was bright despite his wrinkled suit. “Your work, sir,” he said, handing Harvey a manila folder. Harvey eyed him thoughtfully but took it without remark.

This would mark the beginning of a slow descent for the pair. Mike grew steadily more agitated, Harvey grew proportionally worried. He didn’t know if this was some sort of robotic angst or if Mike’s personality chips were malfunctioning. Actually, he didn’t know Mike that well at all- perhaps he was programmed to be distracted and quiet. It just didn’t sit well with Harvey.

About a month in, Mike started malfunctioning. The third time he had frozen mid-sentence, Harvey took him to the tech guys in the basement and stood in silence as they looked him over. He felt like an irrational parent freaking out over a toddler who had eaten something unusual. Really, this amount of worry over something so small was uncharacteristic for him.

Tech Guy #1 came to talk to Harvey, leaving his cronies to fuss over Mike. The kid was young, with a shock of stark black hair and pale ivory skin. His eyes were just a few shades lighter than Mike’s.

“It’s…not broken, exactly..” The kid was having trouble getting his words out. Harvey let him think about it for a few moments as he silently stewed over Mike being called ‘it.’ Things could change a lot in a month. “Have you been stressing him, sir? Putting it in social situations, or asking it to do things it’s not programmed for?”

Harvey shook his head, confused. “No. He does paperwork, mostly. He interacts with a few of us on a daily basis, but nothing ‘stressful.’”

The techie made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat and rummaged through some paperworks. “We’re going to have to go through his internal circuits, sir. I can e-mail you the results later. It will take some time.”

Harvey knew when he was being dismissed. He stalked towards the elevator and tried to ignore the way Mike’s doleful gaze made his chest tighten with some unknown emotion.

 

::

 

While the tech guys were hard at work poring over Mike’s circuitry, Harvey distracted himself by friendly banter with Donna, mocking banter with Louis, and respectful banter with Jessica. He drank coffee and verbally accosted a few associates.

None of this did anything to settle the worry twisting his gut and pervading every thought that crossed his mind.

By the time he heard anything about Mike, the anticipation had built up so much that what he actually got- “Mike’s ready, please come pick him up,”- did absolutely nothing to assuage his vexation. The long ride down in the elevator was like pure torture. Seeing Mike’s smiling face at the end of it was a balm of the purist comfort.

“Sir! They said the guys over at Starkner Industries have almost finished my wings!”

His smile seemed to grow even larger. Harvey shook his head and wondered what would happen when he had to explain to his android associate that there was _no way in hell_ he would let Mike fly him around. He just knew there would be an argument over that one day.

 

::

 

“So, basically, we have no clue what’s wrong with him.”

Harvey narrowed his eyes. “Explain,” he said. His voice was kept too careful and blank. The kid noticed, and Harvey could hear him gulp loudly.

“He’s hiding it from us. There’s something putting additional stress on his circuits, but we can’t find out what it is because he has either modified his memory or is purposefully hiding whatever it is so we can’t see it.” He shrugged helplessly. “Until that’s fixed, we can only repair the damage, sir.”

Harvey tucked his hands into his pockets thoughtfully. Time to get to work.

 

::

 

“Mike, come in here, please.”

The trip back from the basement had passed in a dead silence. Mike was quietly excited about whatever nano-tech-gizmo-related wing things the inventors over at Starkner Industries planned on screwing to his back. Harvey was silently worrying over what might be stressing Mike, although he would never admit it to anyone. Ever.

There was a brief scuffle as Mike tried to go back to his cubicle, but that was quickly mollified, and moments later they were collapsing onto the too-plush chairs in Harvey’s office. Harvey looked Mike over for a moment. The kid was staring longingly out of the window, where a pristine Fall day was shining outside, no doubt pleased with itself as it taunted adorable children with leaves to crunch and donned its big too-blue sky.

Harvey was less concerned with the sky, and more concerned with the fact that his view of Mike was being blurred beyond belief. He was beginning to see a person there, a person with a problem, a person he wanted to help. This was bad.

“So. Mike. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Pearson-Hardman policies?”

Mike nodded once, shortly.

“And are you aware of what you should do if someone, _anyone,_ is breaking those policies and acting badly towards you?”

Mike tilted his head; his eyes were large and confused. Harvey was momentarily distracted by just how much the kid looked like a puppy before he realized he should probably be listening to what he was saying and tuned in.

“…so, by the wording of the policy, it doesn’t matter who does what to me. I’m not a human.”

Harvey sat in stunned silence for a moment before his mouth finally caught up to his brain. “Mike, listen to me, and listen hard. It _does_ matter. Next time somebody breaks that policy, I want you to punch them in the face. Understood?”

Mike looked as though he was trying to wrap his mind around a concept too large for him, and it almost broke Harvey’s heart for a second. Couldn’t they have programmed any sort of self defense mechanisms into that hardwired brain of his?

“But, sir- I’m not supposed to harm a human, it’s against the three laws of robotics.”

Harvey frowned. “Are those seriously in use?”

“They’re…implied,” Mike said, although he sounded hesitant and worried. Harvey’s smile was dangerous.

“Just don’t break anything, kid.

 

::

 

The next morning, a small group of associates showed up for work shamefaced and sporting impressive bruises. Harvey took a second to admire Mike’s handywork before dragging the kids off to have a good talking to. Nobody admitted what they had done to Mike, but by this point, Harvey wasn’t sure he even wanted to know.

Mike’s suit was ripped slightly, and Harvey jumped at the sight. Finally, a chance to get him into some decent clothes! The stubborn little robot had blatantly refused to take that bland gray three-piece and skinny tie off in favor of more expensive and suitable clothing, and a small part of Harvey died every time he saw that graceful form clad in something dangerously close to an abomination.

“Sir?”

Harvey was startled from his thoughts by Mike, who was only mildly ruffled after last night’s events, aside from the damaged clothing. It was the look on Mike’s face that made Harvey start slightly. If he hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought the kid looked pale and scared.

“I was just wondering, sir..Is there anywhere else for me to go during the nights? I…” he worried the fabric of his tie between his fingers. “I don’t like being alone here.”

Harvey nodded thoughtfully. “I’m sure there is something we can do.”

::

That night, Harvey fell asleep to the gentle sounds of Mike puttering about in the kitchen. The android refused to say what he was doing, but Harvey felt reasonably certain that he wouldn’t be able to burn down the apartment.

The gentle clinks of glasses and the sizzle of frying food lulled Harvey into a sleep so deep the alarm barely woke him the next morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are loved, needed, and necessary for a continuation of this fic. Constructive crit is adored as well. Love it, hate it? Want more or less? Please tell me!


	5. Chapter 5

Harvey’s struggle to consciousness is a long and hard-fought battle. The alarm beeping incessantly at his side serves as an incredibly powerful catalyst. Minutes later he emerged from the murky confines of sleep and pivoted over to slam the alarm off. He is momentarily disappointed when the damn thing doesn’t smash into a thousand pieces but he doesn’t have long to think on it before he’s being distracted by the most heavenly scents emerging from the doorway. Harvey doesn’t bother to put on a shirt as he pads barefooted through the apartment in search of the origination of this delectable smell, and the cool, gentle breezes brushing through his apartment play tantalizingly over his bare skin. Music is drifting in from his living room and he assumes that Mike discovered his extensive collection of vinyls and spent some time playing with them. It sounds like the kid has good tastes, too- soft strains of Frank Sinatra curl through the air, soothing Harvey with his smooth voice and familiar tune.

The smells are coming from the kitchen. Harvey, smart as he is, deduced this shortly after arising. He follows them sleepily like an old cartoon character follows a whisp of seductive, oddly colored steam, and is about to stalk into the kitchen when he’s stopped short by a flash of android. Mike skids into the doorway of the kitchen, and if Harvey didn’t know better he would think Mike’s eyes looked…crazy, and wild.

“Oh, no you don’t,” the android said.

“What? You are aware that this is my apartment, right?” Harvey asked, trying to edge around the stubborn form in the doorway. His progress was somewhat impeded by the steely arm that shot out in his way. He raised an eyebrow and, for the first time that morning, took a really good look at Mike. The kid was in a state of half undress, having sometime during the night stripped away his jacket and starched shirt. That damned skinny blue tie was gone, too- and Harvey spared a moment to fervently hope that it had somehow been burned up overnight, but he caught sight of it hanging off the television screen, and sighed internally. He had a theory that prolonged exposure to that tie might well permanently damage his delicate eyes.

“It needs time,” Mike said slowly, as if Harvey was a child. “You can’t see it until it’s ready.”

Distracted as Harvey is by the gentle way Mike’s undershirt plays over his body, it takes him a moment to reply. When he does, it comes off far closer to a whine than he would have liked. “But…Mike, I’m _hungry._ You can’t stop me from eating.”

“Eating what? I searched your kitchen from bottom to top, and all I found was a can of peppers and some questionable pickles. I know you’re probably waiting for backup supplies to be delivered from the mothership, but really, it was insane.”

Somewhere during their conversation, Mike has bullied him into the living room. Sinatra’s crooning about the moon. The fabric of his couch is soft against his back when Mike pushes him down.

“Now, stay there. Watch tv. I’ll make you something to eat.”

Harvey switches on the tv and jumps as the news blares at him. He settles back against the plushness of his couch, sighing slightly. He could get used to Saturday mornings like this one.

His peace is shattered when he sees Mike’s jacket, carelessly cast off over the coffee table. A slight glint of silver has him reaching over to investigate. His eyes widen in shock when he sees it- a _staple,_ embedded into the cheap fabric. He tugged at it gently and a section of the suit comes away with it.

Mike had never replaced the suit that had been ruined in his scuffle with the associates a few days before, as Harvey thought he had.

He had done a quick fix. Further probing showed that he had used duct tape - _duct tape!_ \- and a small multitude of craftily placed staples to hold the offending flap in place. The mere idea had Harvey writhing in pain- internally, of course.

This could not stand. It simply could not stand.

 

::

 

The eggs were fluffy, and light. They were mildly flavored with something exotic and ineffable, something that had Harvey constantly wrapped up in its mystery. Then, there was the bacon- and _oh, my God,_ the bacon. Perfectly crisped, not overly greasy, not too dry.

Harvey almost moaned at his first bite. It was a close thing.

Still, the suit weighed heavily upon his mind. That simple atrocity could not be forgotten. Harvey had to get Mike into some decent clothes, and fast.

“This is really good, Mike,” he said carefully as he set aside his cleared plate. The eager smile he got in return reminded him of a puppy. If Mike had a tail, he would be wagging it right now. “Only…as you were in the kitchen, I saw something. Something bad. Very bad.”

Mike’s eyebrows crinkled nervously. Harvey could tell by the look in his eyes that he was scanning all his movements about the apartment as Harvey had slept. Confusion broke through when he couldn’t remember anything bad. Harvey wondered just when he had begun reading his fussy little robot quite so easily. “It’s your suit. Your suit, that you… _fixed?_ ”

Mike nodded guilelessly.

Harvey sighed. They were truly starting from scratch. He could only hope that, with proper tutorage and a firm mentor, Mike could be whipped up into shape quickly. Hopefully that positronic brain of his would wrap around the rules of fashion as easily as it gobbled up the rules of law.

“No, see, I don’t have any money-“ Mike burst out. Perhaps he had seen the speculative look on Harvey’s face and had foreseen difficulties in his own future. “And it looks fine. See?” He pulled on the suit and spun around, apparently modeling it for his boss.

The jarring sound of fabric ripping broke through the soothing lull of Sinatra’s jazz. “Let’s see you fix that,” Harvey said. His smile was far from kind, and it definitely reached his eyes. Mike didn’t have a time to react further than staring at him, slack-jawed, before Harvey slipped a cell phone out of seemingly nowhere and hit a button on speed dial. He stalked off to get dressed. Ray would be there any minute, after all.

Harvey hadn’t felt quite this excited in quite some time.

 

::

 

“It’s simple, Mike. We are _not_ leaving Rene’s, and we are _definitely not_ leaving Rene’s to go somewhere called “The Suit Shed.” It is not happening.”

Harvey honestly can’t remember the last time he had been so frustrated while suit shopping. Throughout the day, no amount of endless free excellent coffee or soothing tailor or new-suit smell could counteract Mike’s increasingly annoying frugalness. He was point-blank refusing to stray from the entryway of the store and wander back in to the Land of Expensive Suits. The situation had escalated to the point that Harvey now thought of the back of the store as something important and unreachable, something that required capital letters, like a country or a continent.

The sun was cresting the sky. Mike was holding up some pale gray contraption thoughtfully. Harvey decided that this was Enough.

“Rene, this has gone on long enough. Just…guess what would look good on him, and send it over to my place. You can charge me.”

The look of relief that flitted over Rene’s face was so strong it made the corners of Harvey’s mouth lift ever so slightly.

He grabbed his associate and physically dragged him out of the store before any attempt at an argument could be made. Enough was enough.

 

::

 

The look on Mike’s face as they entered Central Park was absolutely adorable, and Harvey couldn’t even pretend to ignore it. Wide blue eyes, shining mirrors of the sky, flitted across every flower and child and vendor populating the park. His face was slack with awe. His steps were bouncier, though it was hard to see because he was dwarfed in Harvey’s old clothes. The apparent cascade of fabric left so much more to Harvey’s imagination, and it made him wonder just how lanky and thin Mike really was.

“Look at it! It’s like…a bubble of nature, enclosed by city and modern life and technology.”

Harvey peered at him. The opposite could be said of Mike, he thought as they padded through the park. Mike was a microcosm of technology, surrounded by the quiet and the lively stillness of nature.

It hurt his heart, just a little, to think it. But they were there because Mike had wanted something to do, Harvey had wanted something to unwind him after the suit debacle, and Mike had said something about never having any of New York’s landmarks.

It didn’t really explain why they were _there,_ though. They just as easily could have gone to the Empire State Building or to Broadway Avenue or…well, the list of landmarks in New York was long and extensive. Yet there they were, strolling through Central Park. Leaves crunched under their feet but the grass was still green. A chill hung in the air, but Mike was unaffected, and Harvey didn’t mind it overly much.

“Harvey! Look!” Mike turned to him, and Harvey had to stifle a grin at the sight Mike presented. There was a leaf stuck in his permanently ruffled hair, and his eyes held the excitement of a child.

Chess sets. The kid was so excited about chess sets. Harvey should’ve guessed.

“Really? You’re expecting me to play chess against a computer? That’s just not fair.”

Mike grinned shyly. “I’ll let you win every once and a while, if you want.”

“Oh, it’s so on.”

Harvey was never one to shy away from a challenge.

 

::

 

Unfortunately, rising to a challenge did not necessarily equate to winning said challenge. Mike trounced Harvey severely. Harvey won the very last round they played, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Mike had played a large part in his success, and the idea grated at him. Yet he couldn’t be too mad about anything for long when Mike gave him a dopey grin and said “It’s almost four. Can we head back to your place?”

Harvey started, and not only because it was unnerving how Mike could pull the time apparently out of thin air. Also, it was almost surprising how time had flown as they played and bickered, their steady rhythm only broken as strangers wandered by to view their games.

“Oh, yeah, okay,” Harvey said. He had work to do anyhow. He called Ray and they crunched their way out of the park, silent and contemplative as they trekked.

Ray returned them to the apartment building promptly, and shortly after their arrival, Mike barricaded himself into the kitchen. Harvey let the soft sounds of his tinkering hang in the air as he worked through briefs and old case files, making methodical notes as he went. The old task of simple paperwork almost seemed foreign to him now, and once again, he was thankful for Mike.

The sun had just begun to dip below the horizon when Mike made an appearance again. Harvey had long since finished his work, and now he sat perched out on his balcony, watching the descending shades of pinks and purples and blues as they lowered into darkness.

“Here,” Mike said, holding out a plate. Harvey looked at the piece of bread carefully laid there, and his confused expression must have given his feelings away, because Mike smiled brightly. “What do you give the man who has everything?” He asked. His voice was quiet in the still air.

Harvey drew in a breath. What do you give the man who has everything? You got him something easy, something uncomplicated, something he could fall into. You got him something from his past. You got him something he’d forgotten he needed.

The bread crumbled slightly, but it held its shape. It was warm, just like Mike’s eyes. “This is good,” Harvey murmured.

Mike smiled. “It just needed time.”

Harvey grinned a small grin and leaned into Mike slightly, suddenly needing to feel his closeness, his strength. The wiry body was warm against his own. Mike didn’t move away.

“You moved all my stuff,” Harvey said, mainly just to say something. The silence was too full of something beyond words. It stuck in his throat, and hung heavily there.

“No, sir. I organized it.” Mike, at least, seemed ready to humor him.

“Mm,” Harvey said decisively. “Perhaps I need to find you something to do during the nights, so you won’t go causing trouble.”

“Maybe you should.”

Mike turned to him, peering at him through lowered lashes. Harvey wondered, not for the first time, whether the android really felt the emotions he expressed, because he knew that dark-eyed look all too well. The bright blue eyes, mostly eclipsed by dark irises, flicked between Harvey’s eyes and his lips. The lawyer felt tingles shoot through him at the thought. Mike’s gaze was heavy, almost like a caress.

Suddenly, it was all too much- far too much. “Those papers on the coffee table need sorting,” Harvey said, somewhat lamely. He retreated into the dark safety of his room and clambered into bed. He spent quite a lot of energy _not_ thinking about why his hands were shaking and his heart was pounding so fast it felt like it was fluttering in his chest.

Mike’s non-humanity haunted him, kept him awake through an entire night. It hung between them like an unanswered question.

The next morning, Harvey was up and moving far before the sun arose. He needed help. He needed a professional…and he knew just the person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are loved, needed, and necessary for a continuation of this fic. Constructive crit is adored as well. Love it, hate it? Want more or less? Please tell me!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can anyone place the guest character?  
> Also, thank you so much for the support, guys!

Upon waking the following morning, Harvey rapidly became fully aware of two important, although completely unrelated facts.

The first became abundantly clear to him the moment he padded out of his room. He felt the chills break over his skin before he actually caught sight of the ice-cold blue eyes fixed at him from the vicinity of the couch.

“You’re awake,” Mike stated.

“Yes..very observant, Mike.” Harvey stalked slowly closer, eyeing the robot perched precariously on the edge of his pristine white couch at the far end of the room. He paused when the truthfulness of that statement. His couch, which had been placed artfully in the middle of the room, was now pushed flush against the wall. It was garish. His Feng Shui-er would gouge her eyes out at the thought. Now that he looked around, he noticed that other things were out of place: his prized record collection had been replaced by stacks of shiny new CDs {he saw names like Bieber and Minaj gleaming darkly in the light}; his perfectly clear glass walls were marred by childish drawings; and his beloved rug was completely missing. He’d had some good times on that rug. He wanted it back.

“I got bored,” Mike drawled casually. Harvey quirked his eyebrow. It was obvious what would happen if Harvey dared to withhold sex after an apparent come-on.

He hurrumped quietly to himself as he doubled back for the bedroom, his cellphone already in hand. His designer had been bugging him about revamping the place anyhow.

His suits were untouched. At least Mike knew there was a fine line between mischief and downright evil.

The second thing Harvey learned that morning was something he had already known for quite some time, but that Donna wouldn’t let him forget. It was simple: Donna was Omnipotent, and could Read Harvey’s Mind.

Mike had gone ahead, apparently still in some great sulk and refusing to share even a limo with his diabolical boss. Harvey heard him grumbling about wings as he stomped out of the apartment.

By the time he got there Mike was nowhere to be seen and Donna was busy talking on the phone. She hung up the phone as he walked up. She barely spared him a second glance as she spoke.

“You have an meeting over at SI in an hour and a half. Bring Mike, he might have some fun.”

“What?”

She rolled her eyes. “Starkner Industries? You have an appointment with their head robiticist in an hour and a half. I’ve rescheduled your other appointments until noon. Bring Mike, they said something about some new technology being ready for him.”

She spoke to him slowly, as though he were a small child. He huffed slightly. He definitely needed more caffeine in his system before he could handle her snark, and her insane ability to prepare for his every need. “Alright, then…thanks,” Harvey said. He made a mental note to buy her flowers again. At this rate, it was turning in to be a weekly occurrence.

He shrugged and went off to prep a few briefs before they left.

 

::

 

“My wings are ready?”

Megawatt smiles on an android. Harvey’s day kept getting odder and odder. First they entered Starken Industries, a tall and imposing building. Mike had still been stubbornly ignoring him for the entire morning. Harvey had sat by while technicians poked and prodded at Mike, and then they had waited. And waited. And waited a little more.

Just as Harvey had begun feeling bored, another man walked in. This one was interesting- his face was a map of histories and experiences, his hair a mop of fading brown atop his head. His eyes were a little too blue, his nose a little too large, but Harvey liked him. His nametag read ‘Dr. N. Soong.”

“Hi, there. I see we have- ah! Mike!”

“Noonien!”

Harvey blanked out on the next bit as Mike and Dr. Soong apparently caught up, but gleaned the important bits: Noonien was Mike’s mastermind, Mike looked at him like a father, Mike’s wings were ready.

“Yes, they’re all ready,” the doctor said. “Go on down to the maintenance department and they’ll get you all squared away.”

Mike faltered for a moment, surprising Harvey. He looked like a little kid excited about leaving but afraid of letting his parents out of his sight. His eyes flickered from Soong to Harvey almost mistrustfully.

“Go on, Mike. We’ll be here when you get back,” Harvey said eventually. Mike went begrudgingly, although he kicked lightly at Harvey’s chair to let him know that he was not yet forgiven. The door whisked shut behind him and Harvey was left quite alone with one of the world’s leading cyberneticists. Harvey didn’t know what intimidation felt like, but this was always how he imagined it would feel.

“So, Mr. Specter. Why exactly are you here?”

Harvey rubbed at his hands. He hadn’t been looking forward to this particular conversation. “I..have questions.” Soong nodded. “I just need to know one thing. Does Mike truly feel?”

“Ah. I see. Well, Mr. Specter, we actually hear this question a lot. A buyer is lonely, our robots are real and likable and _there._ It’s perfectly normal for them to feel an emotional attachment. Unfortunately, our so-called ‘emotion chips’ only allow for robots to express emotions, not _feel_ it. They take in stimuli and react as they are programmed to. It’s quite complex, I won’t really go into it. Basically, humans and robots can _not_ have a real relationship. The humans imagine the entire thing.”

Harvey felt cold. He wasn’t sure if it was because this Dr. Soong had so easily seen through his charade, or if it was because of the things he had just heard. All the times he had seen Mike’s eyes flicker to his mouth, all the times they had talked and conversed and had _moments_ were just…what had Dr. Soong said? Imagined?

“However…” Soong was still talking, Harvey realized. He should pay attention. “Mike is special. He always has been. He’s part of a new project we’re launching. You really shouldn’t even have him, but from what I hear, Ms. Pearson was incredibly…compelling when she spoke with Mr. Starken. See, he has this special new brain, a Positronic brain…”

Harvey tuned out for a little while as Dr. Soong flew well and truly above any science courses he had taken in college. He picked up a few things, like ‘Mike,’ and ‘Arik,’ and ‘malfunctioning.’

Wait. What?

“What do you mean, malfunctioning? Is he okay?”

“He is operating within all specified parameters, but his emotion chip is different. It appears to be rewriting itself. Let me remind you that I’m telling you this in strictest confidence- if it got out before we were prepared, things could go seriously bad. Anyways, we did some pretty extensive tests, and…we picked up some…interesting wavelengths…”

Harvey nodded quickly. Soong was rambling too much, Harvey wanted to know everything right _now._

“…ones modern neuropsychologists are beginning to associate with a separate mind, a consciousness. He showed signs of feeling.”

Harvey’s eyes widened.

“This is temperamental technology, really we shouldn’t be letting him go with you, but according to my technicians when they were discussing this he started showing signs of stress. For the purpose of prolonged evaluation, he can go with you-but you will need to bring him back every week or so.”

Footsteps were approaching down the hall. Harvey was still searching for words as Mike slipped back into the room with a wide and goofy smile on his face. “Guess what, guys- I can _fly!_ ”

Harvey groaned and let his head drop into his hands. Of all the random androids to fall in lo-no, to _grow slightly emotionally attached_ to, he had to choose the one who would surely drive him to either an insane asylum or to an early grave.

They left shortly after. Soong held him back for a second. With a wicked gleam in his eye, the elderly doctor said “By the way, did I tell you that he’s…shall we say _fully functional?_ ”

“Hey, Harvey- don’t call Ray. I can get us back to the office in no time,” Mike called from the hallway. He was filled with a nervous energy, and his eyes were still cool and distant. Harvey set his jaw and squared his shoulders. He had things to fix up, now that…now that everything was all cleared away.

Half an hour later, and Harvey’s ears felt like they were bleeding from the sheer force off Mike’s whining, but they arrived safely at Pearson-Hardman in his shiny limo with his beloved driver. If Harvey left a list of things for Ray to prepare for tonight, he would deny it tooth and nail. He was not romantic, or mushy.

However, there was no denying the fact that as he was walking the streets with Mike by his side, Harvey had never felt quite as alive.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the support!

“The monkey. It’s on the table.”

Harvey stopped up short. He had been walking briskly about, doing important things, but this muttered sentence coming from somewhere around Mike’s cubicle halted him in his steps.

“On the table! No, no no- it’s going after my cake! Save the cake!”

Mike was nowhere in sight, though, which was odd because that had sounded like Mike’s voice. The cubicle was glaringly empty.

“Harvey, dude, get the monkey. It’s...mmmph.”

The tirade of randomness was cut off by a grunt, and then a long, drawn-out snore. Harvey rolled his eyes and kicked the chair away from Mike’s desk. There, tucked away in the darkness underneath, he found his wayward associate curled up in a position that could in no way be comfortable for any humanoid creature every. He nudged at the boy with his toe until Mike’s eyes snapped open once again. He eyed Harvey with surprise in his heavy gaze.

“Harvey? What’re you doing here?” He said. Or at least that’s what Harvey _thought_ he said; his words were somewhat muffled by his knee.

“I dunno, Mike. What are you doing?”

“Oh!” Mike started the process of unearthing himself from his hiding spot. “I was ‘napping.’ I noticed the other associates do it a lot, so figured I should have a go.”

Harvey nodded. It was probably best to pretend this made logical sense. “And what about the monkey?”

“Mm.” Mike looked confused for a moment. “Monkey? I must’ve been talking in my sleep.”

“You mean you had a dream?”

“Yeah, Harvey. I had a dream. I’ve been having them for a while.” Mike was talking to him like he was a child, looking at him like he wasn’t sure if Harvey had just suffered a stroke or was high or something, because he wasn’t usually quite that slow.

“Oh,” Harvey said.

Oh indeed.

::

The rest of the day was stunning in its normalcy.

Lunch with a client {with Mike’s shoulder was pressed tight against Harvey’s}. Conversations with his cleaners, a negotiation for raises, and the news that his place wouldn’t be ready until later that night {with Mike shamefaced on Harvey’s couch}. Paperwork. Sneaking a text to Ray with a change of plans. More paperwork.

So, all in all, Harvey was incredibly relieved when the elevator doors slid shut behind he and Mike. The feeling chased him through the lobby, out into the chilly New York streets, and into the warmth of the waiting limo. Ray caught his eye in the rearview mirror and nodded. The plan was on.

Their first stop was a small restaurant. Mike had realized almost instantly that something was up, and Harvey had felt a cruel amusement in withholding the information from his associate. Mike was being quiet now; his eyes were dark and speculative when they caught Harvey’s, as though he wasn’t entirely sure what was happening right now. Harvey enjoyed the fact he had tripped up the robot, who singlehandedly consumed an entire pizza. He would later reassure Harvey that eating food was in no way detrimental to him, although he didn’t need it to survive. He merely enjoyed the taste.

The meal was nice. The music was a quiet lull that ebbed pleasantly behind their flowing conversation; the food was delicious, the wine was smooth and rich, and Mike pretended to get tipsy when Harvey did so he wouldn’t feel quite as awkward.

They were giggling when they stumbled back out onto the busy streets. Rather, Mike was giggling over something Harvey had said, and Harvey was smiling softly and fighting down the odd swell of pride that came along with bringing a smile to Mike’s face. Smoothing his face back into its implacable mask was a minor feat of extreme willpower.

He eyed Mike, whose face was slowly returning to its normal shade of ivory white. “So, kid. What do you want to do now? The city’s yours,” _as long as you’re with me,_ Harvey added in his head.

Harvey was thinking something extravagant- perhaps a concert or an opera, or maybe the kid would enjoy clubbing a bit better. The lawyer knew of the best shows, the best clubs, the best sights and the best sounds New York had to offer. It was part of his job. He had to entertain his clientel, after all-

“..in Rockefeller Center yet?”

Harvey blinked. “What?”

Sighing, Mike spoke again. “Do you think they put the Christmas tree up in Rockefeller Center yet?”

“No, It won’t be up for another month yet. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Mike said, kicking at the ground distractedly. “I just….wanted to see the lights, I guess.”

The way his eyes glinted in the dark had Harvey wondering why Mike couldn’t see the light within himself. But if the kid wanted something bright and alive to stave of the darkness falling around them, Harvey could do that, too.

::

They walked. It wasn’t that far, in New York distances. Mike couldn’t get tired and Harvey felt this odd energy pulsing just under his veins, and he figured a bit of a stroll would work it out before he did something rash, like jump his robotic associate in the middle of a busy street. Walking would be better, he thought.

So he waved Ray off and started walking. Mike followed seconds later, shaking off his surprise quickly. Their shoulders bumped every little while and the contact had Harvey feeling hot all over, despite the October chill trying to worm its way into his bones. They walked in a companionable silence that was disturbed only by the snippets of passing conversations and the gentle scuff of their shoes against the concrete. The world felt sharp and crystalline as night descended; everything was made clearer by the harsh lights and the darkness playing just beyond their sights. Every noise reverberated through the unnaturally still air, and sounded loud and crisp.

Mike was the first to break the silence that had reigned for so long. “So, did you like Dr. Noonian?”

Harvey nodded, but kept quiet. The kid would spit out whatever was bothering him in due time.

“It’s just..I saw some other robots there. Ones like me. Only they weren’t, y’know?”

“Use your words, Mike.”

Mike let out a huffed sigh. “I don’t know. I just…felt different, is all. Like I understood something they didn’t, or that I have something they lack.”

Smiling to himself, Harvey kept silent. They were almost there. He could see the lights streaming ahead. Mike, who was staring determinedly down at his heavily scuffed shoes, seemed oblivious to the outside world.

They turned a corner, and there it was. He heard Mike heave a gasp beside him.

He’d seen the sight a thousand times before, so Harvey preferred watching the lights play in Mike’s pale eyes. Billboards and advertisements and shop windows blazed in the dusk. Harvey gently badgered a gaping Mike into the center of square. There they stayed as Mike turned this way and that and Harvey watched the different colors wash over the robot’s face.

Sirens blared, lights flashed, songs played, people talked- but Harvey’s world boiled down to one thing: Mike. The acrid tang of cigarette smoke couldn’t draw him away from those too-blue eyes, blown wide as Mike took in every sight. The jangle of bike bells and the shouts of street merchants couldn’t distract him from the way Mike’s lips fell into a perfect little ‘o’ as he gaped. And absolutely nothing in the world could have drawn him away from this moment when he stepped forward, crowding into Mike’s space and Mike’s heat, and the robot turned to him with surprised etched into the lines on his face. Harvey squinted and searched in those eyes for whatever he needed to see. He saw hope, he saw fear, he saw trust and respect and something deeper and headier and heavier lurking behind the rest.

Harvey couldn’t tell you himself what he needed to see, but he did see it. The next moment was lurching; it felt as though Harvey’s feet left the ground and his stomach flipped entirely and gravity seemed to fail him utterly. Then his lips were crashing into Mike’s, and it was warm and safe and solid. The earth returned beneath his feet. The world was right again.

There was a rising symphony to their actions, beginning with the slightest murmur of a rhythm and building to a crest of emotions too vulnerable and too _big_ for a place like Time Square. Harvey pulled out for breath first, of course- the damn robot probably didn’t even need to breathe. He knew exactly what he probably looked like- face flushed, lips pink and plump from kissing- but Mike looked like the same immaculate disaster he always was. He was affected, though. It was in the his eyes, in the way he rubbed his lips distractedly and smiled, in the way he said “Whoa,” as though Harvey had just given him the best present of all time.

Then, Mike crossed his eyes and gave him a dark look that was bellied by the way he couldn’t stop smiling for longer than a few seconds. “’Bout time, you git,” he said. Harvey almost wanted to hit him, but really, he just wanted to kiss him again.

“Home?” He asked, and winced. The Great Harvey Specter was reduced to one-word sentences.

Mike chuckled, and Harvey felt his chest rumble slightly against his own. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d like that,” he said with a smile.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support, guys. It's amazing.  
> Also, you are almost caught up, so after tomorrow you'll be on real time. Chapters will take longer to appear.

“Harvey.”

Harvey ignored Mike in favor of working his hands up his associate’s jacket. Warm, taught skin met his fingers, sheltered only by the thin material of Mike’s shirt. He grunted and went about nibbling fiercely at the delicate lines of Mike’s neck. Tackling the man’s tie was a vague distant worry of his. It looked difficult, especially in his current state of mind.

“Harv- _unf._ Harvey!”

“Mm?”

“We’re still in public. You do know that, right?”

Ah. Right.

Harvey pulled back, glancing around the crowded square as casually as he could manage. His lips still tingled fiercely. He wanted more.

Unfortunately, they had been spotted. Just in his cursory glance Harvey had spotted a number of tourists snapping pictures on cheap disposable cameras which were no doubt freshly unearthed from their snazzy fanny packs. A small army of people were merely staring, transfixed. One especially daring person started cheering loudly, shouting things like ‘Woo!’ and ‘Congrats!’ The rest of the masses were quick to catch on.

“They don’t think-“

“They think we just got engaged,” Harvey nodded grimly. He felt a smile threatening to break out at the corner of his mouth. They needed to get out of there, fast.

Luckily, he caught sight of their rescuer moments later. He grabbed Mike’s hand and disappeared into the crowd.

“You know Ray probably got a picture of that. And now he’s probably texting it to everyone we know,” Mike said. One look at Mike’s gleaming eyes and Harvey honestly couldn’t give a damn, but the knowledge that this meant endless taunting and teasing from Donna and Jessica hung over his head as they fought through to the street.

 

:: 

One tense, uncomfortable limo ride later and Mike and Harvey found themselves suddenly still in the confines of the elevator. Harvey had never felt any animosity towards the device before now, perhaps because his usual one-night stands rarely had a problem with him pressing them up against a wall and having some fun before they even reached his apartment. Mike, however, was perfectly calm and cool. He wasn’t sending out all of those delicious ‘just-kiss-me-already-you-asshole’ vibes Harvey usually received at a time like this. He linked his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels. If his associate didn’t want to rut like teenagers in a public place, Harvey could live with that.

All bets were off the moment the door of Harvey’s apartment swung shut behind them. Mike was on him in moments, thrusting against him so hard it had Harvey’s head knocking against the wall and Mike murmuring soft apologies into his mouth. Harvey shut him up with one efficient movement, slotting their mouths together. Mike whimpered; Harvey groaned; for one instant, the world ceased to turn.

Harvey couldn’t think, couldn’t comprehend a world that might exist beyond his hot cocoon of Mike’s lips and Mike’s hips bumping against his own and Mike’s hands groping clumsily against every inch of Harvey’s body that was within his reach. Harvey felt it high time he return the favor and ran his hands from Mike’s shoulders to his wrists, successfully freeing him of his jacket and capturing his hands between his own in the process. He brought them to his chest, tucked safe between his heart and Mike’s chest. In one graceful motion he lowered his head and nipped Mike’s knuckle smartly. He could feel his heartbeat flooding through his ears, and pounding in his chest.

Mike’s eyes went dark. “Bed.”

Harvey nodded with a wry quirk of his lips. “Agreed.”

 

::

As Mike and Harvey relaxed out in their post-coital bliss, and Donna and Jessica laughed outright while Louis shook his head in terror over the belated text-message they had just received from one diabolical limo driver, a far-away computer ticked determinedly into the night. It was old. It was dented, and the screen was broken, but it still worked. At the moment it was working on hacking into the list of Starkner Industries’ product list. It contained every robot or android the monster company had ever created, and it threw in their current positions, too. It was of upmost importance to his mission, because he had to do _something_ , something to fix the utter wrongness that plagued Aiden Ardell’s world.

 _They_ were everywhere, now. Making coffee, cleaning houses, controlling things, building things. They took humans’ jobs. They ran the world.

The thought that robots had wormed their way into every facet of the world had furrowed into Aiden’s brain some time ago, and since then it had festered and grown into something that gripped his every waking moment and controlled his every stray thought.

It probably didn’t help that Aiden kept forgetting his meds, and that the paranoia had started coming back again.

The computer dinged promisingly, startling Aiden from where he had been snoozing lightly on the keyboard. He wiped a bit of drool from his chin and squinted blearily at the screen, before the sleepy disgust faded from his face, to be replaced with a number of things: elation, surprise, shock, confusion.

“I did it?”

He scrolled through page after page, eyes skimming over entry after entry.

“I did it!” He threw his arms in the air, before settling down once again. Now time for work. He needed to find someone, someone big and important. Someone who would work as an example. Someone whose security probably wasn’t quite as good as Starkner Industries’, because last time he tried to get in there, he had been caught by the cops and decided that the subsequent stay in prison was neither pleasant nor productive.

With his clever fingers, it didn’t take Aiden long to find just what he was looking for. One of the more recent transactions was the largest he had seen for any one android, and he knew about this Pearson-Hardman place. He was sure he could sneak through their defenses.

A twisted smile wrung his lips. “Perfect,” he purred. And with that, he went to work.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update in..about a week?-ish?

The progression of their relationship was odd to Harvey. They lived together before anything romantic occurred, and that didn’t change after the whole thing blew up and Mike started spewing android feelings all over the place. Harvey found he didn’t want it to change. It was something that came from within. It was something faster than light, something easier than thought, something more natural than breathing.

The sun streaming in from the window fell across his eyes, its light unbearably bright for his bleary eyes. He winced and whined and eventually snuffled his way into the back of Mike’s neck, nipping at his clean-smelling skin playfully. His narrow shoulder acted as an excellent shield. In this newfound darkness, Harvey fell asleep once again.

 

::

Later that morning, Harvey found out that if Mike allowed himself to fall into his ‘pretend sleep,’ he absolutely hated being woken up. It took thirty minutes of poking, prodding, cajoling, calling, stealing blankets, and eventually of forcibly rolling Mike out of bed before the stubborn android even opened his eyes. After landing with a loud _thud_ , he yawned hugely, blinked blearily up at Harvey, and smiled a small little grin that broke Harvey’s heart. “G’mornin’,” he mumbled. Harvey stumbled off to make coffee.

The next Monday, Harvey found out that Ray had in fact sent out the pictures of Mike and his first kiss, just as Mike had predicted. Donna was all smug and coy and sneakily excited for them. Jessica called him into her office to make sure he wasn’t abusing the company’s latest {and most expensive} project. Louis kept blushing fiercely and fleeing the area if he happened to spot either Harvey or Mike in the proximity. He fired Ray, only to find the smug driver in the same place at the same time as usual to pick him up after work. Mike clambered gracelessly inside the limo. Harvey couldn’t help but smile, just a little.

A week later, Harvey found Mike trying to sneak a new assortment of skinny ties into his {read: their} condo. He wasn’t really sure where they were coming from; Harvey kept taking them away, but he suspected Mike had a secret stash at the office because every time he turned his back one would magically reappear. He pretended not to see them hanging right beside his own. He also pretended he didn’t feel a small bloom of _rightness_ settle into his chest at the sight.

Three weeks later, and two landmarks occur. Mike figures out how to use Harvey’s coffee maker, although instead of pushing the buttons like normal people, he hooks himself up to the machine with a hidden jack of some sort he’s been hiding in his finger. Harvey thinks Mike’s cheating on him with his appliances for a little while before Mike figures it all out and laughs at him. The next day, the first snowfall of the year caresses the ground with its pearly white embrace. Harvey reluctantly pulls out his extremely expensive snowboots. Mike goes insane, declaring a necessary trip to Central Park as soon as possible for ice skating. Harvey agrees-but just barely, and no matter what you hear, he did _not_ fall on his ass.

Around that time Louis finally got over his weird blushing-and-running-away thing. Mike thinks he’s jealous. Harvey can’t see why he wouldn’t be.

A month later, Donna starts asking when the wedding will be, Jessica calls Mike into her office to make absolutely sure Harvey isn’t abusing the company’s latest and most expensive project, Harvey harps about her distrusting him, and Mike complains that he doesn’t like it when ‘mom and dad’ fight. Harvey points out that this would make _him_ Mike’s dad. Mike drops the subject quickly.

A month and a half later and everything is exactly as it should be. Yet, somehow, a strange prickle of wrongness won’t leave Harvey alone. It creeps along his neck, sends shivers down his spine. He doesn’t know what it is. He doesn’t know if he should really care.

With Mike quietly humming a nonsensical tune and going crazy with a yellow highlighter by his side, he doesn’t know if he really can.

 

::

Mike woke up.

It wasn’t ‘waking’ in a traditional sense, not that the android would be aware of this fact. Humans felt a shock, a feeling of nothing followed by a feeling of the world returning to its normal self. There was a moment where they half-hazardly wheeled their brain back from the endless abyss of dreams, praying that there will be something to recover after the night’s respite.

Mike..drifted. He turned off his thoughts for a bit. Waking up was nothing more than flipping a switch to him.

Something warm and heavy made a sleepy grunt and attempted to move even closer to his back. Harvey would kill him for spilling the secret, but New York’s best and most ruthless closer happened to love cuddling. Mike felt a smile pull at his lips, even as he edged back towards the heat. Harvey’s breath ghosted the back of his neck, drifted across his shoulders. They were pressed so close Mike could feel the man’s heartbeat, a steady thrum, strong and vital and _alive,_ as if it knew it was beating for both occupants of the bed. Mike felt perfectly still in comparison.

Harvey stirred when he pulled out of bed. His hair was an absolute mess, standing up in every which direction and abusing the freedom it never felt when it was glued down during the day. Mike couldn’t help but grin at the sight of sleep-dopey Harvey blinking owlishly up at him.

“What’re you smilin’ at?” Harvey mumbled.

“You.”

“Bu..”

“Y’know, I think I love you most for your amazingly precise diction.”

“I will fire you.”

Mike kissed the tip of Harvey’s nose. “You wouldn’t dare. Remember your life without me?”

Harvey looked affronted. “I was fine without you,” he said, and Mike pouted until he relented and added, “but now I’m better.”

Mike trounced off to make something for breakfast. He could still feel an echo of Harvey’s heartbeat reverberating through his skin, calling for a response that will never appear.

 

::

Mike made crepes and coffee. Harvey’s reaction was, for him, nearing elation. What with the delicious distraction the chocolate-filled pastries created, and a further (even more delicious) distraction they brought about, the two were late to work. Harvey strolled off to do something Important and Life-Altering the second they arrived, although he really didn’t have to be there at any specific time. Mike had things to finish for Louis. These things ensure that he’s busy until after lunch.

His phone rang. Mike has never been quite this thankful for a break.

“Hello?”

“Mike? It’s Donna. You need to get down here. Now.”

Mike raised an eyebrow. Donna sounds breathless. She sounds _worried._

“Be right there.”

 

::

Mike knows there’s something up.

The unknown guy standing in Harvey’s office with a gun makes that abundantly clear. Still, Mike can’t help the feeling of _ohgodnoprotecthumanprotect **him**_ that grips him. He’ll blame it on Asimov, and thank his lucky stars that he has the ability to logic himself out of it because tackling somebody while they’re pointing a gun at someone would be both bad and potentially fatal.

The guy is tall, and pale. Dark circles smudge under his eyes and he has a pair of the biggest glasses Mike has ever seen. With a shock of greasy blonde hair and clothes that are covered in stains, he looks more fit for a laundry matt, not a place decked out with the finest expenses possible.

The gun, though..it gleamed. Mike couldn’t take his eyes off of it.

“You’re A-7713? The android?” He spits out the words. Mike can see Harvey tensing, can hear Donna texting something behind her back with his creepily good robot hearing and prays she can get the police there soon, because this really is starting to creep him out.

“I prefer Mike, really. It sounds so much more friendly. And happy.”

The guy snorts, turns towards him-

-and shoots him in the chest.

 

::

Mike rolls his eyes even as the force from the bullet carries him back through the pane of glass behind him, because really? You’re trying to kill a robot, and you shoot him in the chest? None of his really vital systems are there. Only his power supply. Oh, wait..

As darkness clouds his vision and the sounds around him go murky and muddy in the air, Mike has a few brief seconds to wonder if this is what passing out feels like. He hopes Harvey will be okay.

He hears a small scream from Donna, a yell from a voice that sounds like Harvey but that can’t be Harvey because Harvey doesn’t yell.

And then he knows nothing.

 

::

 _Mike._

“It’s easy, you see? Just set an example and the rest of the world will see what’s happening! It’ll be fine. The needs of the many, and all that.”

“Oh, you did _not_ just quote Star Trek as you talk about why you’re blowing up the building. No.”

 _Mike! Get up. Shake off that darkness. Get. Up._

“Aiden? You don’t need to do this. You really don’t.”

“..it just needs to happen, okay? I’m sorry it’s you guys, I really am. But there’s nothing you can do to stop it. The bomb’s already set. Just accept what’s happening.”

 _Mike. This is important. Get up. Save them._

 _You can’t die. You never lived._

 _Come back._

 _You here? Good. Welcome back to being nothingness._

 _To being **his** nothingness. _

 

::

His vision flickers into place. Literally. Appearing, disappearing for a few moments, coming back again just like a TV screen warming up. He feels his body starting up. He can feel power thrumming through his circuits again. He feels himself coming online once again, as surely as a computer rebooting.

He gropes for something to grab onto, pulls himself up into a seating position. He can see the crazed guy with the gun, and so can Donna and Harvey. They watch the passage of the dark glint of metal as the man waves his hands around. Harvey seems pale and there’s a muscle twitching at his jaw that tells Mike he is far from happy, Donna looks stoic and a little too fierce for Mike’s liking. They’re distracted, so they don’t see him rise. He’d better do something before they try something drastic.

The offices were empty and unnaturally silent. Even back in the days where Mike stayed in Pearson-Hardman overnight, there were always noises, always people drifting about. Now it was too quiet. Whoever Donna texted must have cleared the building. The silence set him on edge.

It must be down, logically. Somewhere near the foundations of the building. It would do the most damage there, and Mike knew that was the intention. He felt his gears whirring faster and faster as they skimmed through building schematics and complex equations, working to pinpoint the most logical place for the bomb to be, and then the pieces fell into place and he knew. From a few stories up, he heard a bang, a scream, glass shattering, and Harvey’s voice yelling something. He was still alive, then.

Mike ran.

::

He was right, of course. The thing was ugly and twisted, sitting in the cool dampness of a far corner of the basement. It was a mass of cacophonous wires and blinking lights, so nonsensical in its construction that Mike couldn’t figure out how to begin turning it off. He knew one wrong move and the building would go up in flames. He couldn’t risk it.

He had another option, although Harvey wouldn’t like it at all. As long as Harvey was still alive after it Mike didn’t really care.

Still. He was going to be _pissed._ At least Mike would finally get to use his wings.

 

::

Mike could’ve gone straight outside, but the timepiece on the bomb says he still has another five minutes and that’s plenty of time for him to go and make sure Harvey’s okay, especially since odds are he’d never get to see him again. He hopes that he’s still in his office. Then again, Mike hopes he isn’t, and that the lawyer evaded the madman and made it to safety.

He reaches the office with the clock blinking at two minutes. It should be impress him he managed to get there so fast. He just wishes he had done it sooner, especially when he peers through the glass and sees Harvey sitting at his couch staring at his hands like they hold the secrets of the universe. Donna and the guy with the gun are nowhere to be seen. A window is mysteriously missing from its place, allowing a gentle breeze to drift in and waft through the office, and that was ironically perfect for his plan. Mike puts the pieces together: there was a struggle, the window was broken, Harvey sent Donna to safety. Mike doesn’t know where the gunman is. He really doesn’t care.

“Harvey?”

“ _Mike._ ” The way he said it, Mike’s name was like a reassurance, a dream and a prayer wrapped up in one. Mike doesn’t have time to think about it because there are suddenly urgent hands against every part of his anatomy.

“I thought you were dead,” Harvey muttered into his neck. Mike felt something constrict in where his heart ought to be. He glanced at the bomb- one minute, forty seconds.

He feels it when Harvey stiffens against him. Mike knew now that this was a bad idea. No, it was a Bad idea, capital ‘b’ and all, because Mike will have no trouble doing what he needs to do, but seeing Harvey’s reaction to it will absolutely break his emotion chip.

“Mike,” Harvey said, drawing back. Mike can see the beginnings of Lawyer Harvey peeking through the emotional Harvey standing before him. Those broad shoulders straightened; those capable hands clasped behind his back, out of Mike’s reach. “Why do you have a bomb, exactly?”

“Why are you still here?” Mike asked. Deflect.

“Couldn’t leave without you. I sent Donna out with that nut a little while ago. She’ll be able to take care of him. Back to the bomb?”

Mike closed his eyes and wished this would all just go away. The watch flashed a minute twenty. “I have to save you.”

Harvey narrows his eyes. “What do you have planned?”

Mike glanced at the window, and the look betrayed his intentions.

“What? No. That’s insane. You’ll die.”

“No I won’t, Harvey. I can’t. I’m not alive. Look..just see it my way, okay?”

Harvey let out a shaky breath. “I can’t let you do this.”

Mike blinked at him. Harvey couldn’t stop him, and he probably knew it, somewhere deep down. Harvey’s hair was mussed, his eyes were wide and Mike could read every emotion that flitted through his mind in their brown depths. He would always remember the way Harvey looked, right now- just as he would always remember every second of every day. He would remember the sardonic curl of Harvey’s lips when he knew he’d said something especially snarky. He would remember the way he looked truly vulnerable in the early morning hours, when they were wrapped up into each other so tightly Mike could feel every breath and every heartbeat. He would remember the way Harvey’s eyes crinkled when he let one of his true smiles slip through, one of the ones Mike had to work hard for, but were always worth the hassle.

Mike fell into Harvey’s space, wrapping his free hand into the front of Harvey’s shirt hard enough to wrinkle it, perhaps even to tear it. He didn’t care. He crashed their mouths together desperately, pulling the man harshly to him. Harvey followed easily enough, but there was nothing easy about the kiss. It was all teeth and desperation and heat. Mike never wanted it to end.

Harvey broke it off and went to pace near his desk, looking like a caged tiger in the restless grace with which he moved. The loss of his nearness made Mike feel numb and cold. He crossed over to the window, peered below at the crowds. Police were forcing them back, little ripples that fell through their ranks. They were thrumming with life. What Mike wouldn’t give to be down there, to be ensconced in their numbers.

“I love you,” Mike said. Harvey stopped in his tracks. “Just so you know, I really do.”

“Mike-no, don’t do this-don’t you _dare-_ ”

Forty seconds left. Time to go.

Mike took a deep breath, a step back- and a leap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are loved, needed, and necessary for a continuation of this fic. Constructive criticism is adored as well. Love it, hate it? Want more or less? Please tell me!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry for the wait.  
> Things happened. This just didn't want to come, but you guys deserve an ending and here it is.  
> As of this chapter the story is officially brought to a close.  
> Thanks to all of you that are still out there! I hope this makes up for the wait.

Harvey sat perfectly still in his office. Maybe, if he froze, time would stand still. Mike would still be there. Mike wouldn’t have left. 

The steady thudding of his heart pounded against his chest, beating out a staccato rhythm of time passing despite his best efforts. It wasn’t working. It hadn’t worked, and now Mike was gone.  
His hands trembled under his watchful gaze. He was waiting, although for what he knew not. 

An ending. He was waiting for an ending, an ending to him and Mike, to the simple joy of feeling alive without the fetters of sadness holding him back. His life hadn’t been easy, but somehow, seeing the world through the lenses of Mike’s new and endlessly optimistic sight made everything sweeter. Better. That was gone now, ebbing away as surely as the tide, drifting down the river as all beautiful things must. All that awaited now was a termination. The End of Them. 

Some things end with a whisper, Harvey knew. Some things end with a bang. This is what he feared.

Sometimes, though- sometimes they don’t end at all.  
::  
Footsteps. Mike’s awareness blinked into being slowly, quietly, with the gentle thud-thud of footsteps pounding towards him against the cold, ice-covered pavement. For a wild, manic moment of confused joy he could have sworn it was the beating of a heart in his chest; it made sense, after all. The feeling of gentle reverberations beating a path through the steel and circuitry of his body felt much the same as when Harvey plastered against him, skin against skin, the gentle thrum of his living body pulsing into Mike’s as though it were trying unsuccessfully to drag life out of it. 

The notion passed quickly as the part of Mike’s positronic net devoted to logic and reason flickered back into action. 

“Oh, my God, what the hell-what the actual fuck.” The voice sounded young. Mike’s visual sensors were offline, but he could hear very well, and whoever was kneeling next to him was keeping up a steady stream of mutterings. “-fell out of the fucking sky, who does that? Man. I gotta call the police.”

Crumbled cement, snow-Mike patted around his person in search of whoever was by him. He needed to get their attention so that they would realize he was shaking his head hard-no, no police, please no police. This was a really bad time for his voice systems to give out. Eventually he found what he was looking for-bare flesh, warm and thriving under his dead hand. Why weren’t they wearing proper clothing? Mike’s brow furrowed. 

The incessant mutterings cut off with a frankly alarming squealing noise. They started up again moments later, a sea of “He’s alive! He’s-wait, what? No one could have survived that. What are you?” that lapped gently against Mike’s ears. A rumble ripped through his chest, announcing the sudden return of his ability to speak as his ability to speak. He coughed, and coughed again, but somewhere in the middle of that he managed to croak out a number that was near and dear to his heart. Consciousness was slippery; it pulled from his tenuous grasp, as elusive as wet soap. The world faded away to the sounds of distant sirens and falling snow. 

::

Adam was short. {He actually wasn’t, really, but he felt short so he said he was.} He loved things like obnoxiously faded and ripped jeans, slouchy hats, and art. He was a musician, and thus far his hesitant forays into song writing had yielded such gems as ‘Bubalubba Melody’ and ‘I Need You Skin.’ He refused to believe that last one was creepy despite what everyone told him, claiming that the next line (‘to be near mine’) made everything okay. He didn’t have many friends, or warm clothes; he wasn’t ‘cool enough’ and his family was poor..but Adam didn’t care. He was okay. 

He had been having an okay day, too-until some dude randomly plummeted to the earth directly before his nose. Adam couldn’t ignore that. He promptly freaked out, and then freaked out a little more when he discovered that the guy hadn’t died {he should be relieved, but he wasn’t, because let’s face it-that guy should be a pancake and nothing else}. Still, despite freaking out, he’d called the number that the guy had gasped out and now he was talking to a guy named Harvey Specter, although this was a fact the young wannabe-hipster was unaware of. Adam couldn’t quite tell if he liked the guy or not. The jury was definitely still out. 

“What.”

“Hi. Uh. This is Adam?”

“So? Look, if this is a prank call, I will hunt you down and bring the full force of the law down upon you.”

This made Adam nervous. He didn’t know what the full force of the law could do to him, but since he was pretty sure he was doing the right thing, he persisted. “Okay, this probably sounds crazy, but this guy told me to call you. He crashed down from the sky and told me to call you.”

“What? Where are you? Donna, we have him. Let’s go.”

Things started happening quickly after that. Adam had no clue what was going on, but it was going on fast. It only took about five minutes for a guy that sounded just like the guy from the phone to be stepping out of a ridiculously shiny black car and skidding to his knees next to the crumpled body buried in the remnants of what used to be a sidewalk. His relief was palpable. Adam was still halfway sure his buddy was a goner, but it was still sort of touching, he guessed. It’d be nice to have something like whatever those two dudes had, when he grew up.  
::  
Mike was cold. That was new-Harvey had always marveled at just how warm the android was, but that was gone now. His hands were still trembling, harder now-too hard to dial his damn phone. He passed it off to Donna, muttering ‘Noonien’ at her. He was too far gone to be polite. 

Things…drifted, after that. Harvey was distantly aware of Donna’s comfortingly familiar voice surrounding him, tense though it was. He didn’t know what she was saying, or to whom she was saying it, but it was there, a presence almost tangible in the air. It made up for the disturbing silence emanating from Mike, the lack of his usual hums and whirrs that were too quiet to pick up on normally but were there, if you knew what to listen for. They were the noises of Mike’s existence, his living in his own special way, and now they were gone. 

“He isn’t dead.” Harvey hardly recognized his own voice in his ears. 

“Of course he isn’t.”

A gentle hand rested on the nape of his neck, nails mussing the hair at the base of his head. It took all of his will to not lean against the gesture, to close his eyes and pretend that those nails were shorter and blunter and the hand larger. 

Mike didn’t understand how much Harvey needed him in his life. He wouldn’t have pulled such a stunt if he had, Harvey was sure of it. 

“What happens now?” 

“Now we take him in to Starkner Industries. They’ll fix him.”

“Shouldn’t you take him to a hospital? Y’know, doctors, medicines, machines that go ‘bloop?’’ Harvey had forgotten the kid was there. If the situation were different, he might find him amusing. 

“Long story. Lookit, you’re going to help us, okay? I’ll make it worth your while.” 

The kid had deep brown eyes, and his hair was a peculiar ashy brown-blonde color. Most of it was hidden in the slouchiest hat Harvey had ever seen. Something about him reminded him of Mike, and made him want to run away from it because the kid was just that: a kid. He was young and fragile. But he was nodding, hesitantly at first but then with a measure of certainty. Harvey didn’t really like it, but he’d take whatever help he could get-he knew just how heavy Mike could be. 

He sighed slightly. He was too old for this, too worn out for the Mike-less moments of his day thus far to deal with the possibility of losing him forever. 

If he didn’t try to bring Mike back he would definitely lose him. Harvey took a deep breath and got to work. 

::

Oddly enough, the waiting room nearest Soong’s lab looked exactly like something you could find in a hospital. Harvey instantly hated it. He roamed, pacing back and forth like a trapped animal and waiting for someone-anyone-to come and give him word about Mike. It was exactly like his pretty-much-boyfriend was having some extreme medical procedure. 

“Harvey, sit down. You’re killing me, here.” Donna sounded tired. Harvey decided to obey her, because of that. He settled into the seat beside her with minimal grumbling and accepted it silently when she tucked her arm into his. 

“You wanna play Angry Birds?” The kid was still there. Adam, Harvey corrected himself. Adam was still there, mainly because they were too distracted to find out where he belonged and he said he’d texted his parents so it was unlikely they would get sued with abduction or anything. Harvey shook his head at the proffered smart phone with a grimace that he hoped would pass off for a smile and turned to stare at the disturbingly white wall across from him. Donna’s thumbs traced comforting circles around his wrist. Eventually, Jessica joined the party, settling on his other side and pinning him with a familiar female body on each side of his. 

Harvey settled in for a long wait. 

::

About an hour later, a young nerdy-looking scientist stalked in, a lab coat swirling about his ankles. He introduced himself as Dr. Soong’s assistant. Harvey knew that meant ‘minion,’ but didn’t say anything out loud. He knew Donna would hit him for it. She had that look on her face, the one she got whenever she decided something was too adorable for words. She’d had the same look when she introduced him to Mike. 

The scientist said things that Harvey didn’t really understand, but when Donna asked him to repeat himself, ‘in English,’ the truth came out: they were still working on Mike. Things were going very well, overall-but there are difficulties. However, the mechanist went on to explain that he was actually there to tell them what had happened in the space of time between Mike jumping out of the window and Mike crashing to the ground like a meteor. 

They had gone into his memory banks to get the information. Apparently, it explained why Mike wasn’t currently a small pile of ash blowing in the wind. 

He waved some sort of chip around, explaining that it held the recordings of Mike’s visual receptors, and plugged it into the wall. He whirled away as a tiny, high-tech projector lowered itself from the ceiling. Harvey felt his throat tighten as Donna’s hand clenched around his arm. They were going to see Mike’s memories, apparently. 

Adam flipped off the lights and readjusted his hat as a picture flickered to life against the stark wall. Harvey saw himself, standing behind his desk, looking more ragged and open and pained than he’d ever imagined possible. Jessica gasped sharply beside him. 

The view swiveled as Mike turned to view the window, the crowds below, and then the sky. It was an expansive gray-white, framed by sky scrapers that held people and Harvey could almost guess at Mike’s thought in that moment-he had to protect them. Asimov’s laws or no, Mike was going to risk his immortal existence for mere humans. 

The picture went shaky as Mike took a step and leaped, and he fell for a long, heart-stopping moment before the wings kicked in and took him up and up and away from Harvey, away from the people he was trying to protect. Mike’s gaze spun to the timepiece fleetingly. Time was almost up. The sky filled his vision again, and Harvey had to close his eyes for a long moment until Donna jerked at his arm. 

The bomb was flying away. Mike had thrown it, away from the buildings but also away from himself and Harvey felt something tense and dark inside of him loosen at that. Mike wasn’t trying to leave him. He would have, if it was necessary, but he hadn’t gone out of his way to do so. 

But something was wrong; Harvey and the others watched as the little dot of black arced through the air, reached the apex of its flight and began slowly tumbling down towards the earth waiting below. 

The bomb hadn’t gone off. 

Then why had Mike gotten hurt?

Harvey’s confusion didn’t last long. Moments later, the vision jerked suddenly, as though Mike had dropped several feet before gaining his stability again. His wings were failing, causing his flight to be perilous at best as he hastily turned towards the nearest rooftop. It happened again, and again-each time the technology that kept Mike aloft took longer and longer to kick back in. Next time, when he began to drop, it never did. 

The screen became a chaos of colors and flashes of images that tumbled by too quickly to make sense as Mike plummeted toward the earth. 

Harvey hunched in on himself ever so slightly and definitely did not cry, not even a little.

::

It took a while for Soong himself to make an appearance. By then, Harvey was feeling comfortably numb, and Adam had wandered off, humming happily with a big fat check resting firmly in the pocket of his faded jeans. 

The good doctor looked tired. He had grease smeared all over him, marring his smooth skin and crisp coat. His hands were filthy and his face was carefully neutral. It was weird, seeing him devoid of all the mischief and twinkle he’d had before. Harvey waited with baited breath for the news he brought. 

“We fixed all of his systems; that was the easy part. However…there was a problem. A big one. His emotion chip was damaged.”

All the air went out of the room; Harvey could hardly breathe. Mike’s emotion chip-that beautiful, perfectly malfunctioning device-had been hurt. 

“I think we fixed it. We could have replaced it entirely but…” He tapered off with a mild shrug. “It’s possible that Mike will no longer really experience emotions, that we fixed it too well. If that’s the case he’ll still have all of his memories but none of the feelings that go with them.”

The silence hung in the air for a long moment. Soong drew a long breath, seemingly hesitant to end it with his next words. He did so anyways. “We’re about to reboot him. That’s how we’ll know. You all can come, if you like.”

Harvey was up and walking before he was consciously aware it. Donna and Jessica stayed behind as Soong led the way. 

The lab was large. Mike was small in the center of it, lying prone and perfectly still on a plain metal table. Machines were scattered about in the vicinity and a nearby tray sat a set of tools that looked like dentist tools and technology had a set of illegitimate love children; they blinked heavily into the bright light of the overheads. 

Harvey knew he was imagining it, but Mike looked pale under those lights, washed out in a way that he never had been in all the time Harvey knew him. His face was lax and unmoving, but he did not look as though he had slipped into one of his simulated sleeps; there was no peace settled into the creases of his beloved face, just a vacancy that ripped at Harvey’s heart. 

He was beginning to resent all of these feelings, just a little. It would all be worth it if only Mike ended up being Mike again. 

Soong walked ahead, mindlessly adjusting Mike’s position into one that looked more comfortable as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Harvey felt thoroughly rattled. It only got worse as Soong pushed at a point just under Mike’s collarbone, which Harvey was fond of biting. “Hidden power button,” he muttered distractedly. 

Harvey wasn’t listening. Mike’s eyelids were fluttering, as though he was seriously pondering rejoining the land of the living. Harvey leaned forward and watched with reserved hope as life drizzled back into his lover’s face.

::

Mike opened his eyes. The world was bright. Had it always been that way? Flicking through his memory banks Mike found no, it hadn’t. 

He felt sluggish and slow. His pathways were rusty, but were clearing up nicely. He estimated that he would be within normal functioning capacities within five seconds or so, and settled back to wait. 

Once he felt up to it he opened his eyes again. The lights and surroundings were familiar; Soong’s lab. He didn’t remember being taken there. He remembered everything, so this was somewhat discomforting, but he let it slide for the moment because his eye caught on something that looked out of place in the technology of the lab. 

Harvey. 

Try as he might, Mike could not logically decide why he had engaged in such a social relationship with his boss. It was unnecessary, and stood in the way of his work, which came above all else. His mind was cold and logical; his programming told him that he ought to smile blandly, and he did so. 

It seemed to be the wrong thing to do. Something fell out of Harvey-thinking back on it later, Mike would realize it was hope. Soong was there too, busting around checking things before moving over to Harvey, murmuring comforting things in his ear. Mike had stopped paying attention because something weird was occurring within his inner circuitry. It was like a buzzing of electricity, centralized around his emotion chip, and it went on for a long drawn-out moment before something clicked and it all came rushing back with such force that it made Mike twitch mechanically. Something was washing over his pathways, rewriting them neatly and efficiently, and it took a long moment before Mike realized that it wasn’t just any something rushing through him and changing him so completely-it was relief. Harvey was alive. That was good. That was relieving. And, once he’d felt relief, he felt something thundering along right behind it-joy. One by one feelings hit him like bullets, rippling through him and settling near his emotion chip. He felt guilty at putting Harvey through such pain. He felt love, because Harvey was still there despite everything Mike had done. He felt curiosity at what had transpired while he was unconscious. After it all, he felt that it was completely idiotic and moronic and stupid that Harvey was so damn far away, standing a few feet away from the table and watching Mike with wide eyes like he wasn’t quite sure what was going through Mike’s mind or if he even liked it. 

That was too far away. Mike knew this like he knew theoretical physics {which he knew like the back of his hand, thank you very much}. Harvey needed to be there right now or else Mike was going to spontaneously combust and turn into a little pile of lonely, touch-starved ashes at Harvey’s feet. 

He flung himself at the lawyer, who caught him even as the air was knocked out of his lungs with a little whumph noise that sounded pained; Mike took a second to calculate just how much pressure he could apply without breaking any Harvey, and he loosened his grip. Just a little. Harvey wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, ever again, but he seemed okay with that because trembling hands were twisting into the fabric of Mike’s torn, grease-smeared shirt and he wasn’t pushing Mike away, even though he was probably ruining his favorite suit. 

Mike closed his eyes. He would stay there, and wait until the trembling faded and the hands on his back were firm and confident and the wetness at the crook of his neck had dried. He wouldn’t tell anyone about any of it because the only thing keeping tears from his eyes was his lack of tear ducts. Harvey’s pain was Mike’s alone, to absorb and take in and wash away with fervent apologies and pleas and a lifetime of devotion. 

They stayed just like that for a long time. Soong made himself scarce, but the cold lab was still alive with the sounds of mechanics whirring away at their tasks diligently. By increments Harvey relaxed against the onslaught Mike’s warm presence, and the edge of what he had thought he lost began to recede into a more muted memory. 

When he could breathe through the tension in his chest, he pulled away just enough for an unrushed, fervent kiss. 

The world could and would wait. Mike let Harvey steal his warmth and Harvey let Mike feel his heartbeat reverberating between them and, just for a while, they let themselves be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was it worth the wait? I hope so.   
> This brings this work to an end. I debated an epilogue, but feared it would end up like the epilogue of Harry Potter- if JKR can't quite pull it off then I don't dare try.   
> This has been one heck of a ride, and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I!   
> As always, reviews are adored.


End file.
